PCT Published Patent Application WO 01/52541 of NDS Limited describes a system for providing advertisements in an end-user controlled playback environment.
Digital IDs are well known in the art—see for instance abstract of presentation, Identity of Electronic Devices, Tom Willis, available oil the World Wide Web at www.digitalidworld.com/print.php?sid=96.
Ubiquitous computing is well known in the art. Ubiquitous computing is a movement to turn away from direct interaction with computers in day-to-day life, and instead to interact with everyday appliances and devices. Everyday appliances and devices retain their narrow range of function, but have now been endowed with computing power to deal with information based tasks. See for example: Frank Stajano, Security for Ubiquitous Computing, John Wiley & Sons, 2002, especially pp. 88-105.
Bluetooth, WiFi, infrared and other wireless communication methods are well known in the art and are commercially available.
Transport Layer Security (“TLS”, a standardized version of the SSL protocol used on the Internet for secure communications), is described in RFC2246, The TLS Protocol, Version 1.0, and may be found on the World Wide Web at www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2246.txt.
Advertising is a widespread model for businesses to provide information about products to people. The value to the advertiser comes from the products purchased and payment for the advertisements is typically on the basis of the number of viewers. The advertiser therefore wants to target advertisements at viewers who have demonstrated that they are more likely to be interested in the products, thereby converting the minimum number of viewers paid for to the maximum number of products purchased. This, for instance, is what lead to the development of the “soap opera”—programming whose content was deliberately designed to appeal to the potential customers for detergent soaps.
Many products have addressed methods of improving advertisement targeting by profiling the potential audience, both in public multi-media displays and in the context of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs). In public locations, the methods typically assume that a user has specified a profile which is carried around on a mobile devices such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or mobile phone and an advertisement display system collects the profiles of those in the area in order to decide which advertisement to display. In the PVR context, the methods are an extension of the conventional TV model, in which the advertisements displayed are a function of the content viewed.
TiVo now offers TiVo direct, an interactive program that allows advertising content to be delivered to users via their TiVo device. TiVo direct is described in an article found on the Internet at: www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,38754,00.html.
A paper published in the International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting, Politecnico di Milano and Archives Et Museum Informatics, 2001, vol. 1, pps. 437-454 describes an electronic guidebook prototype, and reports on a study of the use of the electronic guidebook in a historic house.
A system of electronic billboards tailoring advertising to passing motorists based on the radio station the motorists are listening to while driving by the billboard is described on the World Wide Web at abcnews.go.com/sections/business/TechTV/techtv_advertising—021227.html and in a New York Times article available at www.nytimes.com/2002/1227/business/media/27ADCO.html and in public relations material at the web site of a company offering such a service, at: www.coolsign.com/company/pr—0020903.htm.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. These wireless automatic identification and data collection systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where bar code labels could not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including livestock identification and automated vehicle identification (AVI) systems because of its ability to track moving objects. RFID technology is described in greater detail on the World Wide Web (WWW) at www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid.
A system of selling products with tiny computer chips containing data such as the serial number of the product is described on the World Wide Web at www.usatoday.com/tech/new/techinnovations/2003-01-27-rfid_x.htm. A scanner can read the chips and then send the data to a database so that stores and manufacturers can quickly track what is sold.
UK Patent 2326004, and corresponding U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/089,717 of Bauminger et al, describe a viewer response method for use with an interactive telecommunications system, the method comprising accumulating a user interaction history of a user of the system, the user interaction history comprising user interaction information associated with a plurality of user interaction events; and providing user-sensible feedback, based at least in part on the user interaction history, wherein the interactive telecommunications system comprises a television system, and the user interaction history comprises a viewing history comprising viewing information associated with a plurality of viewing events, said plurality of viewing events comprising the viewer viewing at least two distinct television broadcast items, and said at least two distinct television broadcast items comprise at least two distinct television broadcast items selected, according to at least one predetermined criterion, from a plurality of television broadcast items broadcast via the interactive telecommunications system.
In addition, the following U.S. patents and patent applications are believed to reflect the state of the art:    U.S. Pat. No. 6,456,234 to Johnson;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,478 to Tognazzini;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,753 to Tracy et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,776 to Blumberg et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,757 to Tracy et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,448,979 to Schena et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,032 to Jamison et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,125 to Szabó;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,803 to Cragun et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,781 to Skagerwall et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,277 to Cragun et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,396 to Teicher et at;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,498 to King et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,369 to Yokazawa et al;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,432 to Wegener et al;    2002/0139839 of Catan;    2002/0139859 of Catan;    2002/0143860 of Catan;    2002/0133817 of Markel;    2002/0013144 of Waters et al;    2002/0008626 of Waters et al;    2002/0156677 of Peters et al;    2002/0138433 of Black et al;    2002/0111154 of Eldering et al;    2002/0160758 of Pradhan et al;    2002/0160759 of Pradhan et al;    2002/0160793 of Pradhan et al;    2002/0152117 of Cristofalo et al;    2002/0147642 of Avallone et al;    2002/0077905 of Arndt et al;    2002/0161633 of Jacob et al;    2002/0164999 of Johnson;    2002/0164977 of Link et al;    2002/0166119 of Cristofalo;    2002/0166127 of Hamano et al;    2002/0083445 of Flickinger et al;    2002/0102993 of Hendry at al;    2002/0160762 of Nave et al; and    2002/0166120 of Boylan et al.
The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification, as well as the disclosures of all references mentioned in those references, are hereby incorporated herein by reference.